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Fisk University

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Fisk University



 
 
Fisk University is a historically black university
Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
 founded in 1866 in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
, Tennessee
Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
, U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
  The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers
Fisk Jubilee Singers

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are a group of African American singers first organized in 1871. Their early repertoire centered on spiritual , but also included some Stephen Foster songs....
 started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages. They toured to raise funds to build the first building for the education of freedmen. They succeeded and funded construction of the renowned Jubilee Hall
Jubilee Hall (Fisk University)

Jubilee Hall is a building of Fisk University in Tennessee.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974....
, now a designated National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, :wiktionary:site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States for its historical significance....
. The 40-acre campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation....
.

In 1930 Fisk was the first African-American institution to gain accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.






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Encyclopedia


Fisk University is a historically black university
Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
 founded in 1866 in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
, Tennessee
Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
, U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
  The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers
Fisk Jubilee Singers

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are a group of African American singers first organized in 1871. Their early repertoire centered on spiritual , but also included some Stephen Foster songs....
 started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages. They toured to raise funds to build the first building for the education of freedmen. They succeeded and funded construction of the renowned Jubilee Hall
Jubilee Hall (Fisk University)

Jubilee Hall is a building of Fisk University in Tennessee.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974....
, now a designated National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, :wiktionary:site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States for its historical significance....
. The 40-acre campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation....
.

In 1930 Fisk was the first African-American institution to gain accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Accreditations for specialized programs quickly followed. In 1952, Fisk was the first predominantly black college to earn a Phi Beta Kappa charter.

On March 12, 2008, Nashville's Metro Council passed a resolution declaring March 19th Fisk University Day in honor of its record of academic excellence.

History

In 1866 six months after the end of the Civil War
Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups to take control of a nation or region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving Regular Army, that is sustained, organized and large-scale....
, leaders of the northern American Missionary Association
American Missionary Association

The American Missionary Association was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on September 3, 1846 in Albany, New York. The main purpose of this organization was to eliminate slavery, to educate African Americans, to promote racial equality, and to promote Christian values....
 (AMA): John Ogden, Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath
Erastus Milo Cravath

Erastus Milo Cravath was field secretary with the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War, when he helped found Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and numerous other historically black colleges in Georgia and Tennessee for the education of freedmen....
, field secretary; and Reverend Edward Parmelee Smith
Edward Parmelee Smith

Edward Parmelee Smith was a Congregational minister in Massachusetts before becoming Field Secretary for the United States Christian Commission during the American Civil War....
 founded the Fisk Free Colored School, for education of freedmen. AMA support meant the organization tried to use its sources across the country to aid education for freedmen. Enrollment jumped from 200 to 900 in the first several months of the school, indicating freedmen's strong desire for education, with ages of students ranging from seven to seventy. The school was named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk
Clinton B. Fisk

Clinton Bowen Fisk , for whom Fisk University is named, was a senior officer during Reconstruction era of the United States in the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands....
 of the Tennessee Freedmen's Bureau, who made unused barracks available to the school, as well as establishing the first free schools for white and black children in Tennessee. In addition, he endowed Fisk with a total of $30,000. The American Missionary Association's work was supported by the United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ

The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Protestantism Christian denomination principally in the United States, generally considered within the Reformed churches tradition....
, which retains an affiliation with the university. Fisk opened to classes on January 9, 1866.

With Tennessee's passage of legislation to support public education, leaders saw a need for training teachers, and Fisk University was incorporated as a normal school
Normal school

A normal school was a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose was to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name....
 for college training in August 1867. Cravath organized the College Department and the Mozart Society, the first musical organization in Tennessee. Rising enrollment added to the needs of the university. In 1870 Adam Knight Spence became principal of the Fisk Normal School. To raise money for the school's education initiatives, his wife Catherine Mackie Spence traveled throughout the United States to set up mission Sunday schools in support of Fisk students, organizing endowments through the AMA. With a strong interest in religion and the arts, Adam Spence supported the start of a student choir. In 1871 the student choir went on a fund-raising tour in Europe; they were the start of the Fisk Jubilee Singers
Fisk Jubilee Singers

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are a group of African American singers first organized in 1871. Their early repertoire centered on spiritual , but also included some Stephen Foster songs....
. They raised nearly $50,000, which enabled the construction of Jubilee Hall. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, :wiktionary:site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States for its historical significance....
.

During the 1880s Fisk had an active building program, as well as expanding its curriculum offerings. By the turn of the century, it added black teachers and staff to the university, and a second generation of free blacks entered classes.

In 1947 Fisk heralded its first African-American president
President

President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, company, trade unions, university, and country. Etymology, a "president" is one who Wiktionary:Preside, who sits in leadership ....
 with the arrival of Charles Spurgeon Johnson
Charles S. Johnson

Charles Spurgeon Johnson was a distinguished United States sociologist, first black president of Historically Black Colleges and Universities Fisk University, and a lifelong advocate for racial equality and the advancement of civil rights for African Americans and all other ethnic minorities....
. Johnson was a premier sociologist
Sociology

Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of Empiricism and critical theory to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare....
, a scholar who had been the editor of Opportunity magazine, a noted periodical of the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement, was named after the term used in the anthology The New Negro, edited by Alain LeRoy Locke and published in 1925....
.

In 2002 Fisk University and Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border....
 established an educational partnership to expand opportunities for students, faculty and staff at both institutions: Fisk with the special qualities of a small liberal arts college and Case Western with others as a major research university. "Through the partnership, students have the chance to enroll in dual-degree programs and participate in student exchanges and joint research with a national or international scope. The possibilities that await faculty members at both institutions are equally as stimulating. The collaborative agreement has paved the way for joint research, faculty exchanges, and distance-learning classes facilitated by cutting-edge technology."

Since 2004, Fisk University has been directed by its 14th president, the Honorable Hazel O'Leary, former Secretary of Energy
United States Secretary of Energy

The United States Secretary of Energy is the head of the United States Department of Energy, a member of the President of the United States United States Cabinet, and fifteenth in the Presidential line of succession....
 under President William Jefferson Clinton
Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the fifteenth Democrat elected to that office....
. She is the second woman to serve as president of the university. On June 25, 2008, Fisk announced that it had successfully raised $4 million during the fiscal year ending June 30. It ended nine years of budget deficits and qualified for a Mellon Foundation challenge grant.

Campus


Jubilee Hall
Jubilee Hall (Fisk University)

Jubilee Hall is a building of Fisk University in Tennessee.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974....
, which was recently restored, is the oldest and most distinctive structure of Victorian architecture
Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly employed during the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 ? 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom after whom it is named....
 on the 40-acre (160,000 mē) Fisk campus.

Music, art, and literature collections

Fisk University is the home of a music literature collection founded by the noted Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement, was named after the term used in the anthology The New Negro, edited by Alain LeRoy Locke and published in 1925....
 figure Carl van Vechten
Carl van Vechten

Carl Van Vechten was an United States writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein....
.

Alfred Stieglitz Collection

In 1949, painter Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, Georgia O'Keeffe received widespread recognition for her technical contributions as well as challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style....
 facilitated the exchange of 99 paintings from the estate of her husband, Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form....
. She made an outright gift of two of her own paintings to the school. These were displayed at the University's Carl Van Vechten Gallery.

In 2005, mounting financial difficulties led the University trustees to vote to sell two of the paintings, O'Keeffe's "Radiator Building" and Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley

Marsden Hartley was an American Modernism painter and poet in the early 20th century. Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, USA. He began his art training at the Cleveland Institute of Art after moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 1892....
's "Painting No. 3". (Together these were estimated to be worth up to 45 million U.S. dollars). However, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is a museum devoted to the work of the American artist Georgia O?Keeffe. It opened in July 1997, eleven years after the artist's death, and is located at 217 Johnson Street in Santa Fe, New Mexico, New Mexico, United States....
 (the legal guardians of her estate) and others sued to stop the sale on the basis that the original bequest did not allow the art to be sold. At the end of 2007 a plan to share the collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to earn money was being fought in court by the O'Keeffe Museum.

Science programs

Fisk University has a strong record of academic excellence: it has graduated more African Americans who go on to earn PhDs in the natural sciences than any other institution.

Notable alumni


Notable faculty


External links

  • - Official web site